Vehicles often have integrally formed front and rear lights, which serve the dual purpose of illuminating the way ahead for the vehicle operator, and for alerting pedestrians or other road users to the presence of the vehicle. These lights are particularly important at night, when the vision of both the vehicle operator and pedestrians or other road users may be diminished.
Vehicle owners may also fit supplementary lights to their vehicle if they intend to operate the vehicle in conditions with particularly poor visibility (e.g. in inclement weather such as fog or snow). Such supplementary lights are well known in the art, and usually comprise high-powered LEDs or halogen lamps.
Vehicle lights, integral or supplementary, are often only used at night. In daylight they are unnecessary for illuminating the way for the driver and, for conventional cars at least, unnecessary and ineffective at alerting pedestrians and other road users to the presence of the vehicle. For electric cars this second point is problematic. As electric cars are far quieter than conventional combustion-engine cars, pedestrians and other road users cannot rely on sound to be alerted to the presence of a vehicle. Additionally, conventional integral and supplementary lights are not powerful enough to perform an alerting function in daylight.
It is also sometimes desirable to convey information about a vehicle to either pedestrians, onlookers, or other road users who are external to the vehicle.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a vehicle light capable of alerting pedestrians and other road users to the presence of a vehicle during daylight, and capable of conveying information about a vehicle to those external to the vehicle.
To overcome the drawbacks associated with prior art vehicle lights, the present invention provides a vehicle light comprising a laser projector which can project vehicle information onto a surface external to the vehicle which may be viewed by a person outside the vehicle.